#fixed-assets
Accounting for long-term tangible assets including equipment, vehicles, furniture, and property
A crane rental company is three businesses sharing one yard — equipment, labor, and logistics. This guide covers 5-year MACRS treatment for cranes, the $2.5M Section 179 limit and permanent 100% bonus depreciation, splitting bare from operated rental in the chart of accounts, per-lift job costing including mobilization, and the utilization math behind an idle fleet that can cost $209,000 a year.
Event rental fleet is a depreciable fixed asset, not COGS; booking deposits, damage holds, and forfeitures uses deferred-revenue and refundable-liability accounts, and cycle-counting shrinkage as its own line keeps 8–12% linen loss from silently eating your margin.
How to book a cold plunge and sauna recovery studio from presale to full capacity — founding-member cash held as deferred revenue under ASC 606, a $110,000–$250,000 build-out split between Section 179 equipment and 15-year qualified improvement property, and the three utilization KPIs (plunge occupancy, revenue per plunge-hour, churn by wait-time cohort) that show whether another chiller pays.
Wind and solar had to begin construction by July 4, 2026 — but a facility placed in service by December 31, 2027 still qualifies for 45Y/48E, a vacated IRS notice restored the 5% safe harbor, and storage, geothermal, and fuel cells remain eligible through 2033.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended the Section 45W Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit — the lesser of 15% of basis (30% for pure EVs) or incremental cost, capped at $7,500 under 14,000 lbs GVWR and $40,000 at or above — for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025, along with the 30D and 25E credits. Only the Section 30C refueling-property credit survives, for property placed in service through June 30, 2026. Covers the acquisition-date and written-binding-contract tests that decide whether a vehicle you ordered still qualifies, how a fleet EV pencils out on total cost of ownership without federal money, and the Section 179, bonus depreciation, and per-VIN asset records that replace it.
A practical guide to truffle orchard accounting — why a 5- to 10-year preproductive period triggers Section 263A capitalization, when the small-farmer election lets you expense instead, how to track costs by block, and when a block becomes productive and starts 10-year depreciation.
2026 bonus is 40% under current law — $32K on an $80K machine, not $80K — unless OBBBA restores 100% retroactively; here's how to model the swing vs. Section 179 and keep the ledger straight.
Return on Net Assets (RONA = Net Income ÷ Fixed Assets + Net Working Capital) measures whether the equipment, vehicles, and inventory a business owns are actually generating profit. Includes a worked example, rough benchmarks (above 5% acceptable, above 20% outstanding), and how RONA differs from ROA and ROE for capital-intensive small businesses.
A tow truck over 14,000 lbs GVWR can often be fully expensed under Section 179 the year it's placed in service — but only if the depreciation schedule starts that year. How towing companies should separate tow, impound, and lien-sale revenue, reconcile lot logs monthly, and price compliance costs into every job.
How to set up bookkeeping for a paragliding or hang gliding school — split tandem vs. solo revenue by USHPA rating level, capitalize $4,500–$9,000 wing/harness/reserve setups as depreciating fixed assets, track PASA certification and site insurance as recurring compliance costs, and hold weather-delayed tandem deposits as unearned revenue until the flight is flown.
A $1,000 tuxedo rented at $196 a night needs five-plus rentals just to cover its cost — which is why formalwear rental bookkeeping treats garments as depreciating fixed assets, damage deposits as liabilities rather than revenue, and seasonal cash reserves as a line item. Here's the chart of accounts and depreciation method that make cost per wear visible.
From July 29, 2026, HMRC removes computers from the VAT Capital Goods Scheme entirely and raises the land and property threshold from £250,000 to £600,000 — the first increase since 1990. Expenditure incurred before that date stays under the old rules for its full adjustment period, so mid-project businesses must check when their first qualifying spend landed.
